PIA Dispatch - Wednesday, January 14, 2009

GRP peace panel flies to KL next week to seek early talks with MILF

COTABATO CITY – Upon orders of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the government peace panel will fly to Malaysia next week to seek all possibilities for the early resumption of the stalled peace negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rafael Seguis, head of the government peace panel, said the GRP panel will go to Kuala Lumpur to talk with Malaysian facilitators to pursue formal or even exploratory talks for the early resumption of the peace process in Mindanao.

Seguis said the government peace panel will go to Kuala Lumpur after the Cabinet meeting next week to talk with the facilitators who will formally inform the MILF.

Aside from Seguis who hails from Surigao, the other members of the new panel who would likely go to Malaysia are Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman; former General Santos City Mayor Adelbert Antonino; former Rep. Ronald Adamat, and Iligan City-based lawyer and businessman Tomas Cabili Jr.

In an interview with media here today (Wednesday, Jan. 14), President Arroyo reiterated her administration’s commitment to the early resumption of the peace talks to finally end the decades-old conflict in parts of Mindanao.

“There is no alternative to peace kaya kailangan hindi tayo tumitigil maghanap ng solusyon,” the President said.

The President added that the newly-reconstituted government peace panel is ready to talk with facilitators and the MILF leadership for the substantive aspects of the peace negotiations, such as ceasefire-related issues, new terms of reference for the International Monitoring Team (IMT), and development projects for Mindanao.

But the President reiterated that government would not talk peace under the barrel of the gun, and that the new policy on the peace process is focused on dialogues with communities. The dialogues shall consider all sides and other stakeholders who would help formulate the enhanced roadmap for the peace process, including ideas on substantive issues like how disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) would be carried out to strengthen the final outcome of the peace agreement in Mindanao.

President Arroyo thanked the Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC) for their crucial help in the peace process. The President also thanked the local government units (LGUs) and non-government organizations (NGOs) which are helping in the programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the internally-displaced persons (IDPs) in the affected areas of Mindanao.

“Peace is a central ingredient para sa kinabukasan ng ating bansa. Lahat tayo gusto natin magkaroon ng kapayapaan at kaunlaran sa Pilipinas and we are confident it will happen,” the President said.

The President added that American soldiers in Mindanao are also helping in the government’s development works in Mindanao by providing health care and building roads, and wells and bridges in impoverished, conflict-affected areas across the island.

The President said the US troops stationed in Mindanao will also continue providing intelligence information to the Philippine military as they are needed in line with the global fight against terrorism and terror groups, such as the Abu Sayyaf which was earlier classified by the US as a terrorist group.


Ermita bewails “trivialization of impeachment process”

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita expressed disappointment today over the recent efforts to unseat Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Reynato Puno, saying the move has led to the further “trivialization of the impeachment process.”

In a statement read before the start of his regular press briefing in Malacañang this afternoon, Ermita bewailed the penchant of Filipinos to file impeachment cases “at every turn using it as a weapon to threaten those in power especially those appointed in constitutional bodies.”

“Our body politic should realize that the pursuit of impeachment is not Trivial Pursuit,” Ermita said.

The executive secretary pointed out that, “the democratic process offers several platforms, avenues and pathways by which we can redress grievances against our top elected leaders and officials of constitutional bodies.”

He said that according to democratic processes of the world impeachment as a “tool of last resort.”

“According to global tradition and practice, we should wield its axe sparingly because when we do, the entire nation dies a bit and is diminished. Only grave crimes must be dealt with by this process,” Ermita said.

He blamed the country’s “degenerated politics” that has led to the Filipinos’ willingness to immediately wield the axe of impeachment because “impeachment has become the most popular political blood sport, a yearly ritual our degenerated national politics cannot seem to live without.”

“It (impeachment) has been some sort of a Pavlovian response to all perceived lapses and breaches in leadership,” Ermita said.

“There is a time to impeach, which must be far between,” he added.

He called on all Filipinos to “rein in the urge to use that powerful tool of democracy in pursuit of trivial matters, which should be most of the time.”


Statement of Executive Secretary & Presidential Spokesman Eduardo R. Ermita

The efforts to impeach Supreme Court Justice Reynato Puno over allegations that he committed a leadership lapse contribute to the growing trivialization of the impeachment process.

Our body politic should realize that the pursuit of impeachment is not Trivial Pursuit.

The democratic process offers several platforms, avenues and pathways by which we can redress grievances against our top elected leaders and officials of constitutional bodies.

According to the democratic processes of the world, impeachment is a tool of last resort. According to global tradition and practice, we should wield its axe sparingly. Because when we do, the entire nation dies a bit and is diminished. Only grave crimes must be dealt with by the process.

Unfortunately, in the Philippine contemporary context, this has not been so.

Impeachment has been the most popular political blood sport, a yearly ritual our degenerated national politics cannot seem to live without.

It has been some sort of a Pavlovian response to all perceived lapses and breaches in leadership. Previous impeachment efforts piled up an archive of angry headlines that get recycled during slow news days – only to rightfully shirk back to oblivion after a few days of currency.

There is a time to impeach, which must be far between.

There is a time to rein in the urge to use that powerful tool of democracy in the pursuit of trivial matters, which should be most of the time.


PGMA appoints anti-graft court presiding justice Peralta as SC associate justice

President Gloria Macapagal –Arroyo has appointed Sandiganbayan presiding justice Diosdado Peralta as the new associate justice of the Supreme Court.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Peralta will replace Ruben Reyes Jr. who retired last Jan. 3.

In his weekly press briefing in Malacanang today, Ermita said that both the Supreme Court and Sandiganbayan were already informed about the appointment.

Six other SC justices are expected to retire this year. They are Adolf Azcuna on Feb 16, Dante Tinga on May 11, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago on Oct. 5, Leonardo Quisumbing on Nov. 6, Minita Chico-Nazario on Dec. 5, and Ma. Alicia A. Martinez on Dec. 19.

Peralta, who joined the Sandiganbayan in 2002, was named chief of the anti-graft court on March 28, 2008 vice Teresita De Castro who was then named as associate justice of the Supreme Court.

The former Quezon City judge had been referred to as a "hanging judge" prior to his appointment to the Sandiganbayan after sentencing to death more than 40 people as a regional trial court judge.

The new SC magistrate finished law at the University of Santo Tomas and is the son of former Manila Court of First Instance Judge Elviro Peralta and former teacher Catalina Madardang-Peralta.

He first worked as a production analyst at the Cosmos Bottling Corporation in 1974 before moving up as general manager of Ace Agro-Development Corporation. He later became the legal consultant of the Metro Manila Commission in 1981 before serving as a barangay councilman in Barangay Fairview in Quezon City.

He was tapped as a member of the Task Force that looked into tax fraud cases against former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos, of the Task Force on Tax Deficiency of the City of Manila and later of the Joint Legal Action Group of the Departments of National Defense, Justice and of Interior and Local Government before working as assistant city fiscal or prosecutor in Laoag City.
Peralta then became a regional trial court judge in Quezon City in 1994 and executive judge in 2000 before being named as associate justice of the Sandiganbayan in 2002.


Archbishop Quevedo named overall head of a Task Force to check massive flooding in Cotabato

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has recently named Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo as overall head of the Presidential Task Force on the rehabilitation and development of the heavily-silted Mindanao River Basin which caused massive flooding in the Cotabato area last year.

The President gave Archbishop Quevedo a copy of Executive Order No. 753-A creating the said task force during the Cotabato River Basin Task Force meeting today (Jan. 14) at the VIP Lounge of the Tactical Operations Group of the Philippine Air Force at the Awang Airport in nearby Datu Odin Sinsuat town.

The task force meeting followed the President’s interview with media here where she revealed that funding for infrastructure, including for flood control, “is a priority order in our economic reform agenda.”

“And we are committed to ensuring that our resources are allocated efficiently and that the most urgent projects are prioritized,” the President said.

Also present during the meeting were task force members ARMM Governor Datu Zaldy Uy Ampatuan, Regional Disaster Coordinating Council Region 12 (RDCC-12) chairperson Chief Supt. Fidel Cimatu Jr., DPWH-ARMM Regional Secretary Rasul Abpi, DPWH Undersecretary Romeo Momo, and Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema.

The President arrived here this morning together with Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral and Press Secretary Jesus Dureza.

Among those who welcomed the President at the Awang Airport were local officials headed by ARMM Governor Ampatuan, Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan, Maguindanao Vice Gov. Datu Sajid Ampatuan, Datu Odin Sinsuat Mayor Datu Omar Sinsuat, Presidential Assistant for ARMM Atty. Jose Barroso, Office of Muslim Affairs (OMA) Executive Director Ali Sangki, and regional police and military officials.

In an interview, Quevedo said the new EO gives more teeth to the erstwhile “monitoring” functions of their task force.

“The new EO handed down authority to us. The DPWH is still the implementing agency but we can do something if there is some delay,” Quevedo said.

The new order amended E.O 753 which the President issued last July 24 creating the Cotabato Flood Control Task Force (CFC-TF).

The CFC-TF, also headed by Archbishop Quevedo, was then tasked to undertake an integrated flood-control program in the heavily-silted, flood-prone Lower Cotabato River Basin, including the Liguasan Marsh, after torrential rains spawned by typhoons Frank and Cosme triggered massive flooding in the Lower Cotabato River Basin.

The said flood-prone basin covers the provinces of North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Saranggani, Sultan Kudarat, the City of Cotabato and parts of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Last October, the President also gave an initial P31-million fund for flood control in Central Mindanao by allocating P20-million for the dredging of Rio Grande de Mindanao from the mouth to the new Delta Bridge; and P11-million for the Simuay Flood Control Project.


Drug czar PGMA remains firm in not reviving death penalty law – Ermita

Even as she had taken over as the country’s concurrent drug “czar,” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo remains firm in her decision not to revive the death penalty as a deterrent in the occurrence of heinous crimes, particularly drug trafficking.

“The President is not considering the revival of the death penalty. She stands by her policy as President of being against the death penalty,” said Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita in his weekly press briefing in Malacañang this afternoon (Wednesday, Jan. 14).

“As far as the subject matter of reviving the death penalty is concerned, the President is not disposed to do so right now,” he added.

President Arroyo, who is a devout Catholic, had signed a bill abolishing the death penalty in 2006, shortly before going to the Vatican to call on Pope Benedict XVI.

She assumed the post as overseer of the fight against drug trafficking at the start of her Cabinet meeting yesterday (Tuesday, Jan. 13) where she ordered an “all-out war, an unyielding and unrelenting war against illegal drugs and their devil merchants.”

When asked what the President would do now that a bill reimposing the death penalty is being revived at the Senate by its author, Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Ermita stressed, thus:

“Should those bills pass both Houses and be sent to Malacañang for action, we will see the action of the President; but for the moment, I cannot second guess the action of the President at that time.”


Fertilizer prices in steady drop, now down by as much as 53%

Fertilizer prices have dipped further after the Christmas season, with retail rates of these commonly used inorganic inputs now 53% lower than their September 2008 levels as an offshoot of the continued decline in the cost of crude oil in the world market, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has reported.

Agriculture Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras said low crude oil prices abroad and the nonstop DA efforts to have such a positive trend impact on the domestic cost of petrochemical-based fertilizer have led to the steady drop in the market rates of popularly used farm inputs like Triple 14, 21-0-0, 46-0-0 and 16-20-0.

In his report to DA Secretary Arthur Yap, Paras said that as of the 2nd week of January, the prices of Triple 14 have fallen 44.8% from P1, 940 in September to the current P1,070 per bag, while 21-0-0 dropped 53% from P1,065 in the same month to only P499 per bag. The cost of 16-20-0 declined 31.2% from P1,410 to P970 per bag and 46-0-0 from P999 to P850 per bag.

In mid-December, the cost of Triple 14 was P1,150 a bag, which means that its price had dropped 7% as of Jan. 9. The price of 16-20-0 fell 15/6% from P1,150 a bag in mid-December.

Earlier, Dennis Mate, the executive vice president of the Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corp. (Philphos) informed Paras that urea, which will be available in Philphos warehouses this month, will cost only P999 per bag compared with its price of P1,900 per bag last October, which translates into a 47.4% drop.

Paras noted that the swift decline in the prices of petroleum-based fertilizers was partly the result of the DA’s call on suppliers to make available at the lowest possible cost, these farm inputs amid the sharp drop in crude oil prices in the world market.

Last November, Yap said that the downtrend in the prices of oil-based fertilizers was good news for the agriculture sector, especially with palay farmers having started planting for the 2009 dry or summer crop.

To ensure that the costs of petroleum-based fertilizers remain low as a result of the decline in world crude oil prices, Yap directed the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA) last November to keep a tight watch on the prices of these farm inputs and check against the “price gouging” activities of certain dealers and retailers who refuse to slash their retail prices.

FPA data also show that the import prices of major grades of fertilizer have sharply dropped as of the last week of October. For instance, the import price of urea plunged to $330 per metric ton from $702 per MT in September, while the cost of 18-46-0 fell from $1,270 to $950 and 21-0-0 from $390 to $366.

Fertilizer prices almost doubled this year as a result of the nonstop jump in oil rates in the world market and big demand by other countries during the first three quarters of 2008, touching off a DA-monitored 30% decline in fertilizer usage by farmers during the wet crop as a result—and leading to a corresponding drop in per-hectare yields for those who have scrimped on this input.

FPA data bared that the average retail price of urea spiraled from P1,036.95 per 50-kilogram bag to P1,797.58 during the same January-June 2008 period; that of 14-14-14, from P1,013.04 to P1,921.21; of 21-0-0, from P725.94 to P993.80; of 16-20-0 from P956.02 to P1,874.04; of 18-46-0, from P1,645.52 to P3,138.40; and of 0-0-60, from P1,102.85 to P1,881.68.

Oil prices breached the $100 per barrel level earlier this year, reaching an all-time peak of $147 last July. But world market prices have since retreated following the US-induced global financial contagion, with the prevailing cost now below $40 per barrel. (DA-PRESS OFFICE)